When ribbon is manufactured, the substrate material such as a cast polyethylene is coated in large wide rolls with an ink material which is capable of being transferred from the substrate to the printed page by impact. As this material is fed from the large wide rolls referred to as jumbo rolls, it is slit by a slitter and wound upon individual ribbon cores for subsequent use on a printer or typewriter. After an appropriate amount of ribbon has been wound upon the cores, the slitter is stopped and a segment of the ribbon stock which remains unslit is cut out and a non-inked material typically spliced into the gap to form a leader and trailer. This material is then passed through the slitter to subdivide it in width to the width of the ribbons being spooled and is wound partially onto the spool in the slitter. At this point, the ribbon stock and slitter are stopped and the ribbon spool wound with ribbon and leader are severed near the center of the leader/trailer film. A portion of the material accompanies the ribbon on the spools, thus forming a spliced-on leader. The remaining portion of the leader/trailer material which has been severed is then attached to new empty spools to form the spliced-on trailer and it is then wound along with ribbon onto the spools to the desired diameter. The cutting of the ribbon stock and the subsequent splicing in and slitting of the leader/trailer material then has the potential of causing misalignment and thus causing the spools to not wind uniformly. When this occurs, the ribbon spool and the ribbon thereon are rejected as improperly wound and discarded, thus increasing the cost of the ultimate product. Additionally, if leader/trailer material is not firmly taped into the bulk ribbon strands, the bond may break, requiring rethreading of the slitter and the subsequent loss of a large number of ribbons in production.
The prior art technique requires the assembly of several separate webs to accomplish the formation of the leader trailer composite and then this material must be adhesively attached to the film of the ribbon. U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,808 to John P. Arena, et al, is an example of such a ribbon structure and the assembly of a plurality of tapes and foils in precise controlled locations.
As taught in the prior art and by industry standards, a ribbon leader is normally a spliced-in assembly and serves to carry the attaching tape, which is used to connect the start of the ribbon to the takeup spool, and further serves to provide a clean handling length of material to protect the operator from ink contamination during the loading of the ribbon into the typewriter. Similarly, a ribbon trailer is a spliced-in assembly of tape and film and serves to carry the attaching tape which is used to attach the end of the ribbon assembly to the center or supply hub. Additionally, the spliced-in trailer assembly typically provides a visual end of ribbon warning via its contrasting color and further provides a threshold print interruption feature to terminate printing before ribbon feed becomes inhibited by the lack of additional ribbon supply. An interruption in feed can have the undesirable effect of causing light and dark characters which require subsequent correction before typing can be continued. One common undesirable effect of a contrasting colored trailer material is that the typewriter can impact the material upon ribbon depletion, thereby causing a transferring of the colored material to the typed page which usually cannot be corrected.
With the large number of tapes and foils required to form the prior art leader and trailer composite, and the subsequent splicing-in of the assembly into the bulk ribbon strand or web (together with the removal of the span of ribbon material to accommodate the leader and trailer), an automated assembly of such a ribbon structure is impractical inasmuch as the materials are thin and tend to tangle, pucker, and tear, and in view of the fact that the alignment is critical during the passage of the leader/trailer composite through the slitter.
State of the art ribbon slitters used in industry all bring the ribbon past the leader/trailer station in a "face down" or ink down fashion. Since the key element of both the leader and trailer is the adhesive attaching means used to attach both ends of the ribbon to their respective spools, it is generally not possible to make even the simplest form of leader and trailer, having only these attaching means, without cutting into the ribbon web and splicing-in a section of leader and trailer assembly.